Some days don’t we just need to be blinded with a bold enlightenment by the Lord? A wake up call something like Saul of Tarsus experienced on the road to Damascas while he was heading out to persecute and murder the Christians. He had witnessed the stoning of Stephen and had been in agreement, and Acts 8: 2 tells us he was going everywhere to destroy the church by dragging men and women off to prison. How often do our selfish ways and desires blind us to the truth of what’s really going down? Blind us to the truth of what and who we really are? Yeah, even as believers, we can get so caught up in the bitter band wagons of retaliation, or the ludicrous lies of the enemy, or the world’s opinions that we can’t see the forest for the trees and you know what, sometimes we just refuse to see and so we don’t. So we just keep on keeping on that same old road to Damascus but sadly it’s the road where the rubber meets the road, and just as the Lord gave a wake up call to call to Saul, He’ll give wake up calls to those caught in selfish plots to destroy and ruin His good things! Yeah, well, God knocked him down with a light so bright it blinded him for three days, long enough to get his attention and confront him with his evil schemes of threats and murders. The Lord faced him head on with who He was and what He wanted of Saul. Saul in obedience did what the Lord asked of him and found healing for his blindness. He was baptized, filled with Holy spirit and instead of murdering, he loved and preached to those in Damascas! Such an amazing transformation for a hard, cold heart of stone. That’s what Jesus does! I love how He does it!
Threats turned to concerns! Killings turned to kindness and hatred turned to love. What a glorious turn-about for Saul. Our roads to Damascus can be hardened with our own selfish blindness but God wants to meet up and change that hard, cold heart and impart a sweet and beautiful spirit of enlightenment into our souls….our beautiful souls. Let’s be challenged today to seek Him out and ask for his healing from hardened hearts and loss of sight. In verse 5, Saul asked, “Who are you Lord?” and the Lord said, “I am Jesus, who you are persecuting.” Saul then asked, “Lord, what do you want me to do?” and then he followed in obedience. Let’s ask the same two questions today, wherever we find ourselves and may our road to Damascus end in love rather than bitterness.
Acts 9: 1 – 6
“Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3. As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. 4 Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
5. And he said, “Who are You, Lord?”
Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.[a] It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”6. So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
I wonder if we, as believers just sit in the church pews Sunday morning half asleep? Oh yeah, we sit and hear messages of social gospel and nice things and good people and how we can be good people and how it’s good enough just to be good people. Or perhaps we do hear powerful, biblical sermons but yet not really hear the words nor be impacted enough to let them change our lives or our worlds. We come, we smile, we chat, we go and we walk to our cars feeling like we’ve done our duty to attend and yeah we’ve given God His Sunday time, and possibly our tithe, maybe even our talent but deep inside our hearts are empty, cold ~ and far from the Father, the Sovereign One who longs to have real fellowship with us. What is it we don’t get? What is we don’t understand? We can judge from critical hearts, and call the shots for others putting them in their place, while all the while our own problem goes undetected and unnoticed by our own heart. Our own selfish, spiritual blindness is our downfall and our spiral downward.
Hope and Healing In Hard Places 